Vodafone customer support? I have a question. Look, when I signed up with Vodafone, I was told that it roamed automatically with the Telstra service, so that the coverage was just as good as Telstra’s. Wherever Telstra had a tower, my Vodafone mobile would connect.
Anyway, I’m in country Victoria right now, and I’d like to ask – why is it that my friend here can make calls on her Telstra mobile, but mine keeps dropping ou… Hello? Hello?
*NO SIGNAL*
UPDATE 3/4: Now there’s a surprise.
I can’t get a straight answer on this either. Told the same thing as you, and then told that “No, it’s only if you have roaming setup on your account and a perfect bill-payment record blah blah blah”.
Then someone else told me that Telstra and Vodafone are two separate companies and no such thing exists.
In summary, Vodafone can go fuck themselves and their staff are retards.
Friends who have used Vodaphone say the coverage is terrible. For example, take Griffith University, practically next to Mt Gravatt, an essential hub for communications across Brisbane – no coverage.
I’ve always believed that the Vodaphone network is separate from Telstra and Optus. It does seem to be inferior in coverage to both.
I’ve had the opposite problem; living in the country, I was advised to switch to Telstra CDMA some years ago because the coverage was better for we country folk. Lo and behold, I move to my new house and discover that I can’t get any mobile reception on my property – I had to go out and stand in the middle of the road before I could use my phone. My neighbours, however, never had any problems, regardless of what phone network they used. Some had Optus, some Vodaphone etc. My so-called fantastic super-duper CDMA phone was the only lemon. Then they phase out CDMA and force me onto Next G. Guess what? I have the same problem; everyone else seems to have better reception in the country than me…
It’s Vodafone, btw. Not “Vodaphone”. Why do people have such an issue grasping this?
I don’t know why this shits me, but it does.
We should just go back to 1 government telephone company imo!
No, but we should go back to the government having responsibility for the non-profitable regional infrastructure.
It makes little sense for resources to be spent duplicating the network across regional Australia so that each carrier has their own version; but it also needs to be subsidised by government, because it’ll never be profitable.
I agree with yobbo, having worked in the industry for nearly 40 years I can only look back with fond memories to the time when everything worked and there was no borders beween responsibilities
I had a brother-in-law die or be killed by all the soldering he done down the manholes of the P.M.G. Telecom Telstra organization. On the back of his work [ before even Bob Hawke recognised dangers in the work place] this brother in-law had been part of building the first modern electronic communication system. Now the heroes of Telstra are its anti-heroes.My mother and oldest sister use to have to pull and push the connections in before sometime before his death,where phones were the privilege of business, government and the well off. All through my adult life up to about ten years ago I couldn’t afford even a phone. Fuck Corporations this isn’t rural socialism..they are are part of the penis envy that the well off expect anyone under their incomes must have. I noted as the telephony around Coffs Harbour was well and truly down a comparison with the early periods of telephony.The break down at Coffs was caused by a fibre optic,or fiber optic, cable being washed out.My views on ressurecting the telephone system was a comparison between the voltage of telephone land lines and househould votage. That is individual households have enough power to adjust down to the 48 volts to get the signals going but this hasn’t been considered.It is likely Telstra as carrier now owes other phone companies some compensation for the phone and computer outage.My dead brother in law as memory will get a sob of disappointment from me as the corrosive power of the marketplace collapses. Mick Ryan was a good man the dead always seem like that to me now.
Jeremy: It’s common knowledge that if you live outside the major cities then Telstra is still your only option.
We basically have 2 telephone systems in Australia now – 1 deregulated market in the capitals, and another (heavily subsidised) Telstra-dominated regime in country areas.
Just use Telstra – they are about 40% more expensive than anyone else but are the only provider that has good service in country areas.
What you need to ask yourself is why people in the city should pay to subsidise rural telephone users. Rural living is already much, much cheaper than city living. Land is cheaper, rates are cheaper.
Cities benefit from economies of scale which means services like telephony can be provided at a profit. Rural areas can’t. So basically us city-dwellers who paid $500,000 for our house are also required to subsidise the telephone bill of someone who moved to Mukinbudin because the government is selling houses there for $10.
Yes! Yobbo! Subsidising the city indeed! So you think all the wonderful products city based businesses produce can compete openly in the country marketplace!?And what are those products Yobbo!?International Accountancy firms coming up with statistics that prove the city subsidises the country!? And does all the wire optic cable fibre grow in Labs in City based manufacturers in the Australian city!?And while you are at it ..confirm the national accounts figures of import and export by simply and duly all the Capital cities borders of Australia!?
Economy of scale can be more effective,but not necessarily more efficient than city based options.If there wasn’t such a problem with e-mail security even a individual like myself could answer any businesses enquiries and because the Internet traffic would be shunted along lines not as heavily used in the city then essentially an effective gate would be open,whereas a business in the city already has large volumes of traffic. I could be a one man call centre rather than being part of a coop. And still possibly do potato shed grading for no pay..just goes into rent. Armidale in N.S.W. was a leading computer hub city with Dialup and basic computer learning since ADSL and Sattellite it has faded a bit.But still the option of using land based wires more effectively as far as traffic is concerned is barely been considered.The physical combinations of Internet traffic would be enhanced for the city by continuing the upgrading of communication.The prices of houses do not now effectively mean the economy of scale follows the house price.
The economies of scale are pretty simple Phillip.
Say a mobile phone tower has a range of 15 square kilometers.
In the city that tower services 10,000 people.
In the country it services 5 people.
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